Some players Stellar Blade are indignant at the modification of micro-details in the game: where a few less pieces of fabric and a little blood generate immoderate accusations of “censorship”.
Even before its launch on PlayStation 5, Stellar Blade created controversy due to the extensive sexualization of its heroine. Now that it is available, another scandal has broken out: some players accuse Sony and Shift Up of having censored certain elements, with a first big update. There is even a petition circulating on Change.org, titled “Free Stellar Blade.” It is already approaching 50,000 signatures.
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“ Stellar Blade is a phenomenal game that has just launched on PlayStation 5 worldwide. But he has a problem. Content has been censored from the trailer released by Sony “, we can read in the complaint. The author of the petition presents Stellar Blade like a “ cultural guide to freedom of expression “. On this topic published on Reddit on April 27we discover that a player was able to obtain a refund of Stellar Blade by invoking false advertising. “ This is a “mature” game. Why on earth should they censor anything? “, proclaims user Blackthorn365.
The studio behind Stellar Blade defends itself against accusations of censorship
Nothing to do with the controversy around the racist tag
This censorship is unrelated here to the racist tag that the studio quickly removed.
What “censorship” are we talking about exactly? A few pieces of fabric added to certain outfits, as content creator Lance McDonald indicates in a thread published on Twitter on April 28.
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There is in particular the “Holiday Rabbit” costume, which displays a less covered neckline and a more indented bottom in the version still accessible with the Blu-ray disc (if you do not update the game). Another outfit, titled “Cybernetic Bondage”, is also affected. Here again, we see a little less skin… still leaving the heroine heavily bare.
We also talk about watered-down violence, as shown this clip from Cyael : on the one hand, Eve is covered in blood while fighting a boss (demo), on the other, the gore effects are less strong (final game).
Stellar Blade was it really censored by the developers? The game director defended himself during a launch event. He explains : ” We understand the problem. However, the costumes we wanted to show you are from version 1.0.0.2 of the game. I want to say that this is our final product. I know this answer won't convince some players. There is currently an internal discussion about this topic. » Shift Up previously stated that Stellar Blade would not be censored in any country.
It should be noted that the “censorship” mentioned by a section of fans of Stellar Blade does not apply to all costumes — if we watch this video from GameSpot. Despite these modifications, the outfits remain very, very suggestive — we are far from a t-shirt and covering pants.
